Prior to the early 80s and the introduction of AIDS into our society, infection control practices were designed almost exclusively to protect the patient from developing a nosocomial infection an infection acquired after admission to the hospital. Protocols were focused on protecting the patient, with little or no emphasis on the health care workers potential to become infected. Hepatitis B has ...

Prior to the early 80s and the introduction of AIDS into our society, infection control practices were designed almost exclusively to protect the patient from developing a nosocomial infection - an infection acquired after admission to the hospital. Protocols were focused on protecting the patient, with little or no ...

Prior to the early 80s and the introduction of AIDS into our society, infection control practices were designed almost exclusively to protect the patient from developing a nosocomial infection - an infection acquired after admission to the hospital. Protocols were focused on protecting the patient, with little or no emphasis on the health care worker’s potential to become infected. ...

The following article is the first part of a comprehensive two-part series exploring the public health and environmental impact of household pharmaceutical waste in the US. Prescription and non-prescription pharmaceutical drugs are critical to maintaining the health and improving the quality of life for millions of Americans. In recent years, ...

Ensuring basic health care for people in low-income countries is critical to the Plan B goal of eradicating poverty and stabilizing population. While heart disease and cancer (largely the diseases of aging), obesity, and smoking dominate health concerns in industrial countries, in developing countries infectious diseases are the overriding health concern. Besides AIDS, the principal diseases of ...

Consultant Andy Ive considers solutions which not only comply but also enhance the environmental profile of today’s industrial companies. Until recently the prevailing perception in many industries, particularly those operating in emerging market areas has been that waste is an unwelcome inconvenience. The primary infrastructure of most companies was fundamentally not designed to deal with waste ...

' Management of hazardous waste is a growing concern in many countries. The long-term impacts and costs of improper disposal can be very high and the emphasis must be on prevention. A comprehensive management system should include (i) policies, institutions and effective regulations and (ii) adequate and acceptable disposal facilities (either public or private). This note outlines the key ...

A straight forward plan to deal with an issue that may seem new to many of you however this issue has been successfully addressed for decades. It’s all over the news, landfills that won’t accept ashes from incinerated waste, towns and states that won’t let waste be transported across their borders, special permits, Category A Packaging, warehouses full of drums and 6mil liners. ...

The minimization of wastes requiring disposal is increasingly important as available disposal options become more and more constrained, and particularly as more substances enter everyday use which are not readily decomposed in the natural environment and which can present long term hazards. This note sets out some basic principles for waste minimization in industrial processes, where ...

At present there is no Management of Hospital or Health care Waste anywhere in Pakistan. Although some good basic groundwork has been carried out in an attempt to bring about improvements, the situation remain deplorable and represents a grave health risk, not only to medical staff but also to general public. Hospitals, veterinary clinics, laboratories and other health care facilities generate ...

Leading world organizations warn us that economic growth and social development cannot be sustained with our current consumption, production and disposal patterns. Yet in spite of increasing sustainability initiatives and better product and recovery technologies, global waste continues to grow at an alarming rate. According to ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) global communities ...

The most common cause for alarm in the medical field pertaining to waste disposal is the exposure of the worker to infectious wastes and contraction of diseases from these wastes. With the increased risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens in handling body fluids and disposal of items that have been tainted by these fluids, awareness and education for the prevention of percutaneous wounds is the ...

Medical waste management is of a great importance due to its potential impact to environment and consequently to human health. In the recent years, many efforts have been made by environmental regulatory agencies and waste generators to better managing the wastes from healthcare facilities. In the past, medical waste was often mixed with municipal solid waste and disposed in residential waste ...

Portland Aluminium has achieved a significant reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill. Although driven primarily by business needs including the pursuit of efficiencies, waste reduction has been achieved by evaluating processes, gaining the commitment of its workforce and combining these efforts with both cleaner production and waste minimisation concepts. ...

A total of 78 US hospitals responded to a survey in a nation-wide sample for the purpose of analysing their medical waste technology management practices under changing laws and regulations in the early 1990s. Findings show that 77% of these hospitals implemented changes in one or more of their operations in storage, treatment, handling, transport and disposal of medical waste and staff ...

Medical waste includes materials that are produced in the course of health protection, medical treatment and scientific research; it forms a separate category of medical or health care waste (Republic of Croatia, 1996b and 2004; Capak, 2001; Ropeik and Gray, 2002). However, it seems that the fraction of waste generated at medical institutions, known as special or regulated medical waste (Lee et ...

Ever since definitions of a ‘healthy’ bodyweight changed in the 1990s, the world seems to be facing an obesity epidemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO) convened an expert consultation in Geneva that formed the basis for a report that defined obesity – not merely as a coming social catastrophe, but as an “epidemic”. The word ...

Fly-tipping, illegal tips and tax evasion are costing the UK more than half a billion pounds a year, according to a report on waste crime. According to a report commissioned by the Environmental Services Association Education Trust (ESAET) and written by written by Eunomia Research & Consulting, the problem of crime in the waste and resource sector is a growing blight on our society and, ...

“Don’t let fashion go to waste,” says H&M, the global clothing retailer that booked $20 billion in revenues last year. So I brought a bag of old T-shirts, sweaters and khaki pants to an H&M store in Washington, D.C., where it took them, no questions asked, and gave me a coupon for 15 percent off my next purchase. H&M takes back clothes in all of its 3,100 stores in ...

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